The band Dave Grohl called the “southern rock masterpiece”
There were never any limits on any genres that Dave Grohl listened to.
One minute, he could be talking about how Sepultura released some of the heaviest albums of all time, or he could take you back to the days when he had nothing else to learn from except a guitar and a Beatles songbook whenever he first learned about music. He ran the gamut of every single genre imaginable, but he felt that a few artists mastered their field far beyond anything that rock and roll had ever seen.
Then again, it’s not like Grohl hasn’t mastered his own genre to some extent. Foo Fighters are the archetypal arena rock outfit in many respects, and even if they aren’t putting on a show in the same way that Pink Floyd were back in the day, it was a lot easier for them to make songs that people could belt to the rafters and throw their fists in the air when hearing them. But, really, a lot of what Grohl does is almost an amalgam of the greatest arena rock bands that came before him.
Queen had already mastered the live show decades before they hit the stage, but there’s also a healthy dose of bands like AC/DC in their delivery as well whenever they play those riffs live. But from his punk beginnings to his love of grandiose rock to the biggest progressive bands in his record collection, Southern rock always held a special place in his heart when he was first falling in love with rock and roll.
But before we go down that rabbit hole, is there really such a thing as Southern rock? Yes, there’s obviously the version that everyone knows from the likes of Molly Hatchet and bands like that, but even the quintessential Southern rock acts didn’t identify with that label. The Allman Brothers Band didn’t see themselves as a Southern rock act, so if they weren’t going to take up the mantle, Lynyrd Skynyrd practically built an entire institution around their southern-fried brand of rock and roll.
Ronnie Van Zant never minced any of his words whenever he got behind the microphone, but even with their cocksure attitude whenever they played, there was a lot more going on there than simple bluesy rock and roll. Every guitarist needed to compose all of their solos to get the sound right, and it was that attention to detail that caught Grohl’s ear when he got attuned to the tracks beyond the ‘Free Birds’ and the ‘Sweet Home Alabamas’ in their arsenal.
Skynyrd did have their hits for a reason, but there was never another band that was more true to their roots in Grohl’s mind, saying, “You can’t deny Lynyrd Skynyrd. I think Skynyrd did for the South what Oasis did for England. They are the true blue Southern rock masterpiece, and I love it. I think they’re great. Whenever we go out on tour, I use the name Artemis Pyle, who is Lynyrd Skynyrd’s drummer. I’m changing it now.”
Granted, it should come as no surprise that someone who fell in love with drums first came to appreciate Skynyrd. They never had the same sense of groove as the greatest funkmasters on the planet or anything, but everything was so carefully constructed whenever they got the right riff behind them, especially when they started swinging when they did versions of old blues tunes like ‘Call Me the Breeze’.
So while Skynyrd does have a bit of a complicated history in the post-Ronnie era, that shouldn’t dissuade anyone from looking at the real classics from back in the day. They were the ones that put Southern rock on the map, and it was up to the rest of the world to see where the hell they would take the rock and roll world next.
